Well-known game developer David Braben is a little bit fed up with the state of computer science education these days, which seems to have shifted away from learning programming to some sort of computer-oriented "life skills" class. As the father of eleven and nine year-old boys, I can attest that so far, despite a massive investment on the part of their school in computer equipment, their computer education has consisted mostly of "play this math game" and "don't be victimized by cyber-perverts." Braben's idea to stem this tide: a very, very cheap computer that students can learn to program on.

I do envy those countries where even university education is considered a right rather than a privileged. If I remember correctly, your down around France but I believe the folks from the Norse regions also enjoy that benefit.

In Quebec (French Canada) too, its about 200$ per class if you no access to full government funding (basically, if you can't pay, it's almost free). Even with those prices, less than 10% get there. But we have a strong professional college grade between true university grades and high school professional training. 3 years to learn about everything to be a good technician/programmer/health care (and 150+ other type of jobs) professional. That's totally free. Still, less than 50% get there.

It's not because education is free that people will take it. It's always disappointing to see the amount of people who don't want to be educated.

I'd say it's a different philosophy. In most countries, you have to make a loan to buy a car, but that has never prevented anyone from buying one. In the US, you have to make a loan to educate yourself for the same reason : you cost a lot of money now, but will be able to reimburse later.

In a way, French education is a loan too : the state pays it, but taxes on companies and high salaries are higher in order to reimburse.